Feast of the Most Precious Blood…

JOHN the Baptist has pointed out the Lamb, Peter has firmly established his throne, Paul has prepared the bride; their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their feasts occurring almost simultaneously in the cycle. The alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade; whilst the bride herself, raised up by them to such lofty heights, appears alone before us, holding in her hands the sacred cup of the nuptial-feast. Read more

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How many of us offer devotion to The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord? Apart from during Holy Mass when we adore the Precious Blood at the Consecration, do we tend to neglect this devotion? Why do we hear fellow Catholics speak of miraculous medals, green scapulars, brown scapulars, but seldom, if ever, devotion to the Precious Blood? I remember being surprised when a school friend entered Religious Life and took “Sister … of the Precious Blood” as part of her name in religion. It wasn’t a devotion I had read or thought about much – what about you?

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I admit that it has not been one of those feast days that I have been aware of until recently. I see it was removed from the Calendar in 1969. Why would they do this? I mean it is a pretty big deal isn’t it?

You are not alone – I think most Catholics have not been aware of this Feast Day. Yes, I agree it is surprising that the devotion hasn’t been promoted much althoughPope John XXIII did write an encyclical on the subject, dated 1960 – which I have to admit, I’ve not read yet myself.

You are dead right Editor, that certainly applied to me (still does apply about many things, I would bet)

Apart from the Consecration at mass, the first time I heard the Precious Blood mentioned was at Benediction. Of course, I didn’t even know what Benediction was (!), until I started practicing according to tradition. So I would never have known otherwise, in the Novus Ordo environment.

There was a Catholic Herald article online recently pondering why British Catholics are so poor at marking the birth of St John the Baptist.

I had a laugh at that, as I myself had only first learned that the birth of St John the Baptist was marked by the Church very shortly before I had read the article – again, it was thanks to the traditional mass.

I agree that devotional threads are not too popular. Just how many do not see the point of them?
The link about the Precious Blood devotion has quite a lot, so I will be working my way through them.
I also thought this link might be of interest.

Very few bloggers seem to see any point in the devotional thread but that doesn’t mean they are not important, for a number of reasons, not least to allow us to pay tribute to Our Lord, Our Lady and the saints by at least acknowledging their various titles and honouring them publicly.

I don’t know either why it was removed from the calendar but it’s still listed as a feast today in the 1962 Missal, so that’s good enough for moi!

The feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969, “because the Most Precious Blood of Christ the Redeemer is already venerated in the solemnities of the Passion, of Corpus Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and in the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.”

Of course the three feasts named there were brand spanking new in 1969 and – Oh no, wait a minute…

About 7-8 years ago, I was reading a blog by a Premonstratensian priest. I had told him about some troubles I was having. He told me in the comment box that the Litany of the Precious Blood is particularly effective against demonic attacks. He mentioned that calling on the Precious Blood is good when attacked.

My Missal is a 1999 printing of the 1945 St Andrew Daily Missal. For the July 1st July Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ it gives the following commentary…

The Liturgy, that admirable summary of the history of the Church, reminds us every year that at this date in 1849, thanks to the French army, the revolution which had driven the Pope from Rome was vanquished. To perpetuate the memory of this triumph and to show that it was due to the Saviour’s merits, Pius IX, at the time a refugee at Gaeta, instituted the Feast of the Precious Blood. Pius XI in 1934 raised it to the First Class.

The Heart of Jesus has made this adorable Blood circulate in His limbs; wherefore, as on the feast of the Sacred Heart, the Gospel presents to our view the thrust of the lance which pierced the side of the Divine Crucified, blood and water gushing forth. [The Office of Matins speaks of the blood which Jesus shed at the Circumcision, in the Garden of Olives, the flagellation, the crowning of thorns and on the cross.] Thus become united the two testimonies which the Holy Ghost bore to the Messias, when He was baptized in the water of the Jordan and when He was baptized in blood on the cross (Gradual). [The Docetes taught that Jesus was the Christ at His baptism, and had thus come by water, but being no longer Christ on the cross He had not come by blood.]

Let us do homage to the precious Blood of our Redeemer which the priest offers to God on the altar.

The clause in the first sentence which I have emboldened, struck a chord with me. I hadn’t thought of it like that before.

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